Relayed from the National Museum of Wales

National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)

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The Ceremony arranged by The Royal Society of St. George
In aid of the Royal Infirmary
Relayed from the Playhouse

The Frog Prince
A Fairy Pantomime adapted from the Original Tale by Dorothy Coombes and C. H. Brewer
Princess Petunia
The Frog
Witch
His Majesty, King Thistledown
Count Fipercent, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Katie, the Dairymaid
Prince Menial
Town Crier
Scene 1. By the Magic Well
Scene 2. The Breakfast Room in the Palace
Scene 3. By the Magic Well

In his own Compositions

Relayed from the Assembly Room, City Hall

National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)
Leader, Paul Beard
Conducted by Warwick Braithwaite

Dorothy Bennett (Soprano), Phillip Williams (Tenor), William Michael (Baritone), The Lyrian Singers
Prison Scene ('Il Trovatore') (Verdi)
Soprano Solo, 'Breezes of the Night'
Miserere Scene with Tenor, Soprano and Choir,
Duet, Soprano and Baritone

The thoroughgoing tragedy with which Verdi's opera ends has never affected its
Popularity in the least. Italian opera enthusiasts apparently enjoy seeing hero and heroine, as well as villain, coming to untimely and terrible death. At the beginning of the fourth Act, Manrico, the hero, is imprisoned by the wicked Count who is his rival for the affections of Leonora. The two are brothers, although the Count learns of it only after he has had Manrico put to death. Leonora comes to the prison and sings to her beloved, weeping beneath his window. In this expressive aria, she bids love fly to comfort him within the dungeon.
On one occasion a distinguished primadonna, carried away by the fervour of her own conception of the part, hurled herself against the prison wall, which proved, unfortunately, too insecure for such an onslaught; the whole wall fell backwards, the lady falling on hands and knees above it. That, of course, revealed to the audience that there was neither prison nor Manrico behind it, and for once the tragedy of the scene made way, all unwillingly, for irresistible mirth.
The tolling of a bell is heard, and the voices of Priests chanting the Miserere, part of the service for one about to die. Leonora realizes that it is her beloved whose death is thus foretold, and suddenly she hears his own voice, mourning his lot, but welcoming death as a release from his sorrows. Her horror at his fate and his own lament are welded with the music of the chant in a most effective way and the scene is one of the finest of Verdi's dramatic conceptions.

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